AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Trading 1.2% Higher – What’s Next?

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)’s stock price was up 1.2% during trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $224.02 and last traded at $223.0150. Approximately 6,552,851 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 10% from the average daily volume of 7,262,836 shares. The stock had previously closed at $220.43.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ABBV. Scotiabank initiated coverage on AbbVie in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $280.00 price objective on the stock. Guggenheim boosted their price target on AbbVie from $227.00 to $242.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $289.00 price objective (up previously from $284.00) on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $258.00 target price on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $249.37.

AbbVie Stock Up 1.2%

The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $224.67 and its 200-day moving average price is $218.02. The company has a market cap of $394.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 168.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 0.36.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 31st. The company reported $1.86 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.77 by $0.09. AbbVie had a return on equity of 3,216.47% and a net margin of 4.00%.The firm had revenue of $15.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.58 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.00 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in AbbVie in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $4,288,200,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 457.4% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,536,901 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,439,714,000 after buying an additional 8,646,424 shares during the period. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in AbbVie by 18,384.4% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,705,964 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,059,141,000 after purchasing an additional 5,675,095 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of AbbVie by 1.9% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 177,298,707 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,910,186,000 after buying an additional 3,380,842 shares during the period. Finally, DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main increased its position in shares of AbbVie by 169.3% in the second quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 4,722,893 shares of the company’s stock valued at $876,662,000 after acquiring an additional 2,969,202 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

About AbbVie

AbbVie is a global, research-driven biopharmaceutical company that was created as a spin-off from Abbott Laboratories in 2013 and is headquartered in North Chicago, Illinois. The company focuses on discovering, developing and commercializing therapies for complex and often chronic medical conditions. Its operations span research and development, manufacturing, regulatory affairs and commercialization, with an emphasis on bringing specialty medicines to market across multiple therapeutic areas.

AbbVie’s product portfolio and pipeline cover several major therapeutic categories, including immunology, oncology, neuroscience, virology and women’s health.